Secondary lithium-ion batteries have found multiple applications in portable electronics where high charge and discharge rates are not required to improve performance. However, high rates become important when considering the use of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries in the transportation industry. Electrode materials having irregular surfaces resulting in high interfacial surface areas and short characteristic diffusion lengths are expected to provide batteries with high power densities. Producing uniform, defect-free surface coatings for such electrodes for lithium-ion batteries having electrically insulating, but ionically conducting electrolytic separator materials on the nanoscale (for either the negative and/or positive electrodes), has proved to be difficult.